Last night my TV said "no signal" when on the Tivo input. I figured the cat had knocked off the cable on my splitter. Today I discover no lights on the front of the tivo but it is plugged in and warm. I unplugged/replugged and could feel the hard drive spinning (don't think it was the fan) but no lights and no signal. It's an HD series 3 with a couple year old 1TB drive with lifetime of course. No hints of problems until this failure.Thanks for any advice.

Last night my TV said "no signal" when on the Tivo input. I figured the cat had knocked off the cable on my splitter. Today I discover no lights on the front of the tivo but it is plugged in and warm. I unplugged/replugged and could feel the hard drive spinning (don't think it was the fan) but no lights and no signal. It's an HD series 3 with a couple year old 1TB drive with lifetime of course. No hints of problems until this failure.Thanks for any advice.

Go read up on "capacitor plague", because there's about a 99% chance that your power supply has it.

Although if it does there's a small chance that's not the only problem.

But that's the problem that will need to be fixed first.

Good news is that if that is the problem, you can replace the capacitors among which the bad ones will be for about $10 in parts and some simple soldering work.

Do you have a #10 Torx bit? A #8? A voltmeter? (you might not even need that) A medium to high wattage soldering iron or gun? A PC to which you can connect the TiVo's hard drive for testing? (it's SATA)

Thanks, I do have a soldering iron but no bulging capacitors, (checked under heat sink too). There is no external drive connected. I can check the hard drive on my pc but with no lights and no attempts to boot it sure sounds like a power supply.

I'll try to find a cheap donor Tivo locally or on ebay or is there somewhere cheaper than weaknees for power supplies? What if I find a good deal on a TCD652160 w/lifetime could I swap my 1TB HD into it and keep all my recordings and season passes?

What if I find a good deal on a TCD652160 w/lifetime could I swap my 1TB HD into it and keep all my recordings and season passes?

Nope. The hard drive is paired to the Tivo with its unique Tivo Service Number. If you put the hard drive into another Tivo, it'll recognize that the TSN doesn't match and will throw an error that will not let you record new or watch anything previously recorded.
And the only way to correct the error is to do a Clear & Delete everything.

__________________The Man Prayer: I'm a man ...... I can change ...... If I have to ...... I guess.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Thanks, I do have a soldering iron but no bulging capacitors, (checked under heat sink too). There is no external drive connected. I can check the hard drive on my pc but with no lights and no attempts to boot it sure sounds like a power supply.

I'll try to find a cheap donor Tivo locally or on ebay or is there somewhere cheaper than weaknees for power supplies? What if I find a good deal on a TCD652160 w/lifetime could I swap my 1TB HD into it and keep all my recordings and season passes?

Definite no to the last question. The drive is married to the Tivo. Maybe a better way of saying it is the shows on a Tivo drive are married to the specific Tivo that recorded the shows.

If you put the drive in an identical model Tivo, it will not properly funtion until a "Clear and Delete Everything" operation is selected. This obviously wipes all programs from the drive and then marries the drive to the new Tivo unit. The new unit must then be set up like a new, "out of the box" Tivo.

Thanks, I do have a soldering iron but no bulging capacitors, (checked under heat sink too). There is no external drive connected. I can check the hard drive on my pc but with no lights and no attempts to boot it sure sounds like a power supply.

I'll try to find a cheap donor Tivo locally or on ebay or is there somewhere cheaper than weaknees for power supplies? What if I find a good deal on a TCD652160 w/lifetime could I swap my 1TB HD into it and keep all my recordings and season passes?

Can you get hold of a voltmeter?

What part of the country are you in?

You need to check the hard drive on a power supply other than the one in the TiVo, and using WinMFS's mfsinfo to check the TiVo software on it and the manufacturer's own diagnostic should be done.

In the meantime, if you disconnect the drive from the TiVo (power and data cables), and power up the TiVo, any change?

I put the original hd back in the Tivo and no change, the hard drive hums but no lights or fan. Tivo offered to exchange my Series 3 for a Premiere and transfer my lifetime for $350 total. If I don't take them up on it I'll get a voltmeter and report back. Thanks for the help.

I put the original hd back in the Tivo and no change, the hard drive hums but no lights or fan. Tivo offered to exchange my Series 3 for a Premiere and transfer my lifetime for $350 total. If I don't take them up on it I'll get a voltmeter and report back. Thanks for the help.

But what happens if you plug the TiVo into the wall socket when there's no hard drive connected in any way to the TiVo?

And by in any way, I mean the combo data/power cable is unplugged from the drive, not that the mounting bracket has been unscrewed and removed.